Paradise Lost
by sulkdodds
Summary: Delphi, a teenage hacker girl living within the Matrix, is left fighting for the life of herself and her lover in the midst of a city wide riot.
1. Almost Paradise

I don't own the Matrix, that's Warner studios. If I owned the matrix, I wouldn't be writing this. Any and all similarities to persons living or dead are an accident. Sorry.  
  
This is my first fanfic, but not by any means my first short story. Hopefully you'll like it, and though I've already finished writing the entire thing, feel fee to make comments and suggestions and I will take them on board when I come to post the other chapters. Read on. A/N. Because this annoying site is not compatible with italics, flashbacks/hallucinations/dreams will have to be separated by rows of stars.  
  
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Like this. Remember, stars mean flashbacks/hallucinations/dreams. Thank you.  
  
* * * *  
  
The Matrix:  
The Loss of Innocence  
  
Almost Paradise  
  
Her knuckles were white from gripping the gun, and her other hand clutched the wound in her chest. She could hear a ringing in her head from the last shot-or was it the ringing of the phone booth? A train clattered overhead, throwing moving shadows over the scene. Tears were streaming down her face. The agent smiled.  
  
"What will you do, Miss Ellen? You cannot fight. You cannot possibly win. If you shoot me you'll be dead before you can get off a second shot. Imagine, for a moment, that you actually managed to escape this place. The resistance will never prevail. Humans, to quote a colleague, are a virus. They must be destroyed. It is inevitable - why fight it?  
  
Delphi stepped backwards. "Anything is better than this."  
  
"Anything?" the agent raised an eyebrow. "What of your friends? Your family?"  
  
She choked back the tears. "I have no family. You bastards killed my friends."  
  
The agent smiled a grim smile. "No, Miss Ellen. You killed them."  
  
It had started just two days earlier.  
  
Cassandra Ellen, Delphi to her friends, sat staring at the computer screen, light playing over her face. Around her, the room was a tip, littered with discs and papers. Someday she would have to clear it up. She turned back to the computer.  
  
A message appeared in dull green writing. She smiled..  
  
[I need an escape, please? Come on...]  
  
Her fingers darted over the keyboard. "Jay, you know I don't approve of your nocturnal activities", she typed.  
  
[Really?]  
  
"I keep telling you it will end in tears...."  
  
[Yeah, but not mine.]  
  
She chuckled, despite herself. It was hard not to. She just wished he'd find some other hobby. Cat burgling was not exactly a noble pursuit. At least he always put things back-he only did it for the challenge. She always worried that he would get caught, that he would be thrown into jail, or worse, that the authorities would work out what they were doing. Right now the only thing really protecting them was the fact that they were too young to be of any importance. In the middle of nowhere.  
  
"All, right," she typed. "Try the north corner of the car park.  
  
[You're an angel. I'll see you tomorrow. Oh, by the way, unlock the door when I get there, okay? I've forgotten my key.]  
  
Half a mile away, a black sedan pulled up outside a filthy little block of flats. A figure got out. It crept down a thin stairway and stood in front of one of the doors.  
  
"I'm waiting," it said.  
  
The door unlocked with a click.  
  
Delphi leaned back in her seat. She wasn't tired; she was never tired when she messed around even at this time of night. Green symbols scrolled across the screen, almost too fast to read. There was an uneasy feeling in the air. Maybe she was just worried as always, but the feeling had an edge to it. They would all meet tomorrow; maybe then she would get some answers.  
  
She was tall, thin and just 15, though she looked considerably older. Her dark hair hung over her eyes haphazardly, her deep black eyes. People said they were like bottomless pits, but when she wasn't daydreaming there was fire in those eyes. She always seemed to be somewhere else - to her, the dreams were more real than real life.  
  
Unusually for the underneath of a teenager's bed, there were no discarded socks and no old magazines. Nevertheless she reached under and for a second her hand wasn't there and then she was pulling out a blue plastic storage box. She popped open the lid and leafed through folders and odds and ends, finally extracting an A4-sized photograph. She looked at it for a long time.  
  
It was her pod.  
  
She slept, and dreamt.  
  
* * * *  
  
The screech of a modem echoed in her ears, mingling with her own screaming. The world seemed to grow indistinct, a corona of green light covering every surface, and suddenly started to distort. Her view of the room shrank, becoming a window of light in infinite darkness. And then it accelerated away, dwindling to a tiny point of light before vanishing completely. Then she opened her eyes.  
  
She was smothered in red, in a womb of glass and bubbles. She thrashed wildly, pushing upwards and bursting through the blood-coloured membrane. As her vision cleared, she saw where she was. And then she fell backwards, falling into light again.  
  
* * * *  
  
The bus jolted again as it rumbled over the corroded roads above the glen. From here, Delphi could see all over the island-the fields, the mountains, the little valleys and streams that crisscrossed the landscape. Straight ahead the azure sea was just visible as the school bus rounded the mountain. She sighed, and turned back to the crowded interior. It was packed with noisy schoolchildren, of all ages, but everyone was taking great care to stay away from her.  
  
One boy got up and walked over to her, sitting down beside her. He was the only one on the bus that would dare to come within a metre of her.  
  
"Sleep well?" said Jay. Even with his constantly smiling face, framed with shoulder length hair, he always looked as if he was about to pull a gun and start smoking a joint. Which, Delphi reflected, he probably was. It was a strange thing that despite his immorality he was instantly likeable. He was a dropout, a 'blue-pill', but after seeing a rebel attack he had started his quest for the Matrix again. That was when Delphi had found him.  
  
"No. No thanks to you," she retorted in mock anger.  
  
"I'm sorry," said Jay, with a look that would have been a sneer, but somehow seemed amiable, something that only he could do. "Will you ever forgive me?"  
  
She prodded him on the forehead. "Probably."  
  
The bus started to go downhill, a sure sign that the school was only minutes away. Below it the town of Lamellas glittered like...well, like a large fishing village. Technically it was not a town, but it was the closest thing the island had. Besides, it had the only high school, the island council, and most of the restaurants and shops. It hugged the terrain from the calm bay, ensconced in the harbour wall, right up to the foothills of the inland peaks. The bus drove slowly down towards the seashore.  
  
"You know there's been an agent prowling around on the coast?" she said.  
  
Suddenly Jay was not his normal carefree stoner self. "What? Fuck! Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
"Don't worry. It hasn't been near the ferry, it looks like it's just on a patrol from the city." The city on the mainland swarmed with agents.  
  
"I hope so. Still, keep an eye on it."  
  
"You don't have to tell me that."  
  
They walked through the bustle of pupils, the crowd parting around them like the sea before Moses. Another bubble of emptiness joined theirs. It was Alicia and Ajax.  
  
"Hi there. You've had a busy night haven't you, Jay?" said Ajax, a well built yet ragged looking boy.  
  
"Breaking into the Macintosh hotel?" continued Alicia. She was another blue- pill. Talkative and brash, good with guns but all right at hacking - a jack- of-all-trades, as it were.  
  
Jay feigned innocence, his eyes bulging at the very thought of it.  
  
Alicia brushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes. "Then what's that?" she said, pointing to the gilded cigar case protruding from Jay's back pocket.  
  
Jay muttered while the other three laughed.  
  
* * * *  
  
Ghost had led her on through the rain, until they reached a little bar, tucked in behind the Corrie Hotel. They had walked down the neon-lit steps in silence, and she ran to keep up with the trenchcoat-clad man as he weaved through the smoky interior, eventually bringing her to a room overlooking the seafront. The sea crashed on the harbour wall, the horizon just a green haze through the pouring rain and the storm. The room was filled with smart suited men and women, all with knowing smirks on their faces, surrounded by equipment. Ghost indicated her to sit down.  
  
"You are a surprise," he had said, smiling behind his ridiculous goatee. "I was expecting someone a little older."  
  
Delphi nodded. She had been only twelve at the time.  
  
"However, age does not matter. You know why I have brought you here. For the whole of your life you have questioned the world around you. Maybe you did not know, it, but you have. Your dreams are more real than reality. When you wake up, you feel you are falling asleep. Sometimes, when you concentrate, you can almost see cracks in your prison...."  
  
And he had gone on, with his henchmen silent in the background all the time. And he had given her a choice. Red or blue. Truth or ignorance. Of course, for her it was no choice at all. She chose the red pill.  
  
And she had woken up.  
  
But somehow, the machines had kept their grip on her; she had fallen back into light again, before she awoke again in her own bed. She had dismissed it as a dream but she could not dismiss the nagging feeling that she hadn't really woken up, but had drifted back to sleep. For days she would not believe it. Until, after three days of mental torture, she decided to contact Ghost again.  
  
And he had told her.  
  
* * * *  
  
Her cell phone rang, snapping her out of her daydream.  
  
The ringing was more high-pitched than normal, more insistent. Not noticeable unless you were listening for it. It meant that it was a rebel, and that it was urgent.  
  
"Put that phone away right now. Miss Ellen, or there will be serious trouble," shouted the teacher. Ignoring his demands, she answered it in a rush.  
  
"Delphi," she said.  
  
It was Morpheus.  
  
She raced through the corridors of her school, faster than the teachers pursuing her could have managed even in their youth. From the hurried message from Morpheus all she knew was that a member of his crew, Trinity, was trying to escape an agent, and that she was coming up to a locked door. Delphi had to unlock that door before Trinity got to it.  
  
She turned left into the computer room, and booted up a computer. She could hear the running feet coming closer. Willing the old machine to go faster, she moved a table across the doorway and dropped it just as someone slammed against the other side. Finally, the computer finished, and she raced to open the window that would give her access. Another blow landed on the door, and the table fell over.  
  
Her fingers were a blur over the keyboard. They moved unnaturally fast, and the door lock clicked just as another teacher barged against it. She was safe, until they worked out to go in through the neighbouring classroom.  
  
Immediately she spotted Trinity in the lines of code. The woman was running through a rundown hotel, with one agent and ten policemen in pursuit. The locked door, in this situation a terminal barrier, lay only seconds away. Delphi tapped a key, and the door was open. She watched Trinity run on, and up to the roof. Hunter and prey vaulted across the rooftops, and finally she got to a phone.  
  
Delphi watched in horror as a truck started to thunder towards the phone booth. A split-second before it was turned into a battered chunk of twisted metal, Trinity jacked out. Delphi slumped back. And the teachers flooded into the room before she could do another thing.  
  
* * * *  
  
Every hacker had heard of Trinity, Morpheus, Soren, Ballard...they were legends. Every hacker was drawn into the complex web of information piracy and digital terrorism. And every hacker at one time or another asked the same question. Nearly all woke up from the matrix, were unplugged, and lived in the real world. Nearly all. Because some, whether by fluke or because they simply were not strong enough, did not make it and the Matrix kept its grip on them like it did her. And others, of course, chose ignorance.  
  
After that she had not found it so hard to believe. As she began to understand, she realised that in the depths of her subconscious she had known it all along.  
  
The rebels dared not try another extraction for a long time, so they visited her in the Matrix every day. There was not much risk of detection- this was the middle of nowhere after all. She trained and trained, though she had to learn the hard way-they could not just upload it into her head. By the time it was safe to attempt another unplugging, Delphi had decided to stay in the Matrix to help those who didn't make it out, the rejects and those who took the blue pill. And so their little group had grown. She had learnt a lot since her revelation. In fact-  
  
* * * *  
  
"Miss Ellen!! Do you understand?" screamed the headmaster, thumping his fist on the desk.  
  
Delphi jerked out of her reverie. "Yes," she said quickly.  
  
"I hope so. I really hope so. Your parents will hear about this and you will be given a senior detention. You are dismissed."  
  
Woo. Not very exciting, I know, but just you wait. Go forth and review, people. 


	2. Resistance

I don't own the Matrix, that's Warner studios. If I owned the matrix, I wouldn't be writing this. Any and all similarities to persons living or dead are an accident. Sorry.  
  
Hello again, dear readers. Welcome to the second, and more exciting part of the story. Expect some stuff, and fight scenes and things. Yes.  
  
Resistance  
  
It was later that day when she finally finished her punishment, and slipped out of the school up to the old deserted warehouse that was their hangout. It was now boarded up and rundown. But that didn't stop her. Checking around to make sure no one was watching, she jumped up into the third story window.  
  
Light streamed in through the gaps in the boards, illuminating the swirling dust motes that were settling on the computers, the equipment crates, the land rover and the cases of guns that littered the huge space. On the back wall there was a giant map of the world, with pins of different colours stuck all over it. Around the sides of the room masses of tubing and technology was piled on tables and in crates. From up here on top of the hill she could see Lamellas bay stretching away towards the misty lump of holy island. It was a peaceful building, now long forgotten, perched on a cliff top on the east side of the island. Who would guess that the resistance would have any assets here, of all places?  
  
The whole gang were already waiting. Jay was fighting at lightning speed with Ajax, and winning, while Alicia idly cleaned an assault rifle. Nexus, a thin boy with hardly any hair at all was just visible under an upended supercomputer, while Amber, a blue-pill and a quiet, shy girl who nevertheless was second only to Jay at the art of flying about and kicking people, was handing him a spanner. To Delphi and all the others, this was home.  
  
"Hey there, Delph."  
  
"Good to see you."  
  
"What did they do to you?"  
  
"Hi Delphi."  
  
"Mmph mmph Delphi.fucking breakers."  
  
She smiled, and sat down at one of the computers. Maybe the others could jump over buildings and bend time around themselves, but she was the best hacker they had. Only Ajax came close to her, though he made up for it with a keen analytical mind. Delphi got up and idly walked over to the map, stopping shortly to lend Nexus a hand, occasionally having to dodge Jay and Ajax's madcap rumble. The pins stuck all over it were not random-the red pins represented sentinel activity and machine bases in the real world, while blue pins were the human bases and ships. Yellow was machine activity within The Matrix, green was rebels. It was a complex web of supply lines, bases, clusters of coloured pins. She turned back as Jay went flying across the room.  
  
Ajax flipped off the ceiling in triumph. Jay got back up, and the fight continued.  
  
Delphi strolled back to the tangle of wires that was hanging over Nexus. "Please stand back."  
  
Delphi and Amber knew Nexus well enough to do what he said when it concerned equipment. They stood well back.  
  
The great iron hulk sparked, then started to hum.  
  
"Okay. That's about it," said Nexus, emerging with his hands greasy. "Lets give her a whirl."  
  
Alicia came over, Jay and Ajax ceased their fighting and everyone crowded round as Nexus hooked the lines up to a computer terminal.  
  
"This allows us to run twice as much data than we did before, so we won't have to dump code all over the place when we run out of capacity."  
  
Delphi remembered the last time they had conducted a major operation. They had been providing support for an ambushed rebel team and the code was pretty intensive. When the strain on their meagre system got too much they were forced to dump the excess code in the centre of their island and retrieve it again when they needed it, causing half a block of slums, an extensive sewer system and twenty cases of explosives to appear very suddenly in a quiet valley, proving fatal for the local wildlife. That time they had almost been caught-that sort of thing is unsurprisingly spotted immediately. They had only just been able to pick it all up again and put it back before the trace program zeroed in, and by that time Amber and Jay were pulling out the modem boards in a panic. The problem was not that they didn't have enough system resources to bend the world, but that they didn't have enough to do so and still cover their tracks.  
  
Things like this server were hard to obtain. While the rebels could simply upload equipment, the gang had to be far more cautious. Three hundred thousand pounds worth of supercomputers and networking equipment just turning up would not go unnoticed. So they had to go for a slow acquisition of hardware, diverting supplies where they would not be noticed, creating computers piece by piece.  
  
"With this we can run twice as much shit as we could before and still not be noticed."  
  
Nexus stood aside. Now it was Delphi's turn. She sat down at the large machine and started to mess around. Almost immediately the others fell upwards, landing with a crash on the ceiling.  
  
"That," murmured Jay as he stood up on the ceiling, "was a good trick".  
  
Delphi's eyes lit up. This system was so much more powerful, there was so much more she could get away with.  
  
"You think that's good?" she said.  
  
Delphi looked down, thrilled at what she had just done. The others were whooping in delight. She stared through the invisible floor at the island they knew so well, from ten thousand feet in the air. The entire warehouse was hanging in the sky, suspended on nothing. The others cheered. This was her own form of rule bending. She didn't need to be able to manipulate gravity with a thought when she could accomplish so much more with a computer.  
  
That night she was woken - by what she didn't know- and opened one eye, pretending to be asleep. Seeing nothing, she sat up and stared straight into the face of a man bending ver her bed. He looked Asian, and wore circular shades and a white suit. She opened her mouth, but he shushed her.  
  
"Quickly," he said, very quiet, in a heavy Chinese accent. "You must come with me. The Oracle wishes to see you." Delphi was surprised. Of course she had heard of The Oracle - who hadn't? - but she had never actually seen her. "Me?" she whispered. "How-  
  
The stranger shushed her again, pointing to the door. Delphi pulled on a coat over her scanty nightclothes and hurriedly put on her shoes. She followed the man to the door.  
  
"How will we." The man pulled a key from his coat and stuck it into the door lock. The bedroom door opened not onto the familiar landing but into a blindingly bright white corridor. They stepped through. Now she could see that the hallway seemed to go on forever, and was full of green doors.  
  
They walked along in the harsh light for what seemed like hours, until finally the man pulled out his keys again and opened a door. The smell of bakery wafted out from the cosy little kitchen beyond.  
  
An old woman turned around in her chair.  
  
"You must be the oracle," said Delphi.  
  
"Spot on, dearie. And you must be Delphi," the woman said kindly, in a voice which seemed to be inevitably driving towards offering a cookie. "I see you've already met my friend Seraph."  
  
"He's.you're bodyguard?" said Delphi.  
  
"Right again," said The Oracle. And, sure enough, "Cookie?"  
  
"No thanks."  
  
"They're good."  
  
"It's alright."  
  
The Oracle shifted back in her seat.  
  
"So, Delphi-and that's a lovely name-do you know why you are here?"  
  
Delphi hesitated, and ignored the question. "You can tell the future?"  
  
The Oracle smiled. "To some extent, yes. Duck."  
  
Delphi did and a few seconds later a small child wearing a turban threw a spoon over her head before scooting away.  
  
"Don't worry about him dear. You didn't answer my question."  
  
"No," said Delphi. "Why am I here? You never summoned me before."  
  
"I never needed to. I know you can take care of yourself. But now things are different. The world is changing and very soon there will be a great darkness. I cannot see past the darkness, Delphi, but I can warn you. You are going to play a big part in the coming events."  
  
"What events?" said Delphi.  
  
"Have you heard of the Prophecy, Delphi?"  
  
Of course she had heard of the Prophecy. Morpheus championed it every spare moment. The One would rise from the Matrix, the reincarnation of that very first pioneer, and he would see the Matrix for what it really was, and end the war against the machines.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"They have found the One."  
  
Delphi gasped. "He exists? I thought it was just."  
  
"Legend. Oh yes. But legends are not always false."  
  
"Why haven't we been told?"  
  
The Oracle closed her eyes. "They do not yet know that he is the one they are looking for. But they will learn."  
  
Outside, the sounds of a city could be heard. Delphi walked over to the window and thrust open the curtains. It was some great western city, pillars of steel and glass reaching into the sky. Here, it was daytime.  
  
"What's my part in all this?" she said without looking away.  
  
"If I told you, it would really bake your noodle. Suffice to say, when the time comes, you will know what to do."  
  
Delphi sighed. She should have known better, from all that she'd heard about the Oracle, to expect a strait answer.  
  
"It is time," intoned Seraph.  
  
The Oracle sighed again. "It looks like our little session is over. But I will say this to you now Delphi. There will come a time that you will find yourself alone, holding the life of your friends in your hands, and you will have to choose whether they live or die."  
  
"How will I know?"  
  
"That, you have to decide on your own. I know it's hard for you, but this sort of thing always is. I'm sorry."  
  
Delphi filed out of the door with Seraph, uncertain.  
  
"It was nice meeting you Delphi."  
  
The door closed.  
  
And that's the second chapter. Tune in when I have more reviews for the next chappie. Alright, next week, ok? 


	3. Reflections

(I don't own the Matrix. You know the drill. Also, I lied. Some people in this story are based on my friends. Please don't sue me.  
  
Kudos to my reviewers.  
  
Darkstorm: Thanks for your support. Damn, that was embarrassing. My actual document was all nicely spaced out and then it appears on site all blocked together as if written by an idiot. Anyway, it's now sorted. Thanks a lot!  
  
Suicide 42: Bloody hell. I don't know what I expected, but not that. I would say that opinion could be a little premature - but hey, I'm not complaining. And I have a perfectly good life!  
  
Robert Martress: Thanks for the comments. I'm sure in the Animatrix that it said, "some people don't manage to wake up" on the director's commentary. But I take your point.  
  
Skyren: Ha! I knew you'd come crawling back. Thanks for the review, though I don't know what you mean by "even if there mostly all dead". If this story becomes popular enough I may just tell that story.I think there is plenty of 'but that is another story' potential in this fanfic.  
  
Oh, yes. A poll. I'd like your opinion on this: should this story be renamed 'Paradise Lost'? Please give your view. Thanks.  
  
Okay, back to the story, people. )  
  
Reflections  
  
Delphi didn't sleep at all for the rest of that night. She couldn't. She was too worried. Finally, she decided she would go back to the warehouse, spend the night there, familiarize herself with the new machinery.  
  
The hillside was deserted as she climbed the rundown path up to the headquarters. There was a light on inside the building. She scrambled up to the imposing wall and put her ear to a door. Nothing. Creeping around the back of the warehouse, she silently jumped up to the roof. She opened a hatch - the skylight was covered of course - then dropped down into the hall. Now she could see a light in one of the offices. She edged up the stairs and along the corridor, pausing to pick up a gun from the armoury. There was light coming from the room where they had stashed the new server. She advanced. Now she could hear typing. If someone has gotten in here, she thought, we are in serious trouble. Then she barged open the door, pointing the gun inside.  
  
It was a cosy room, scattered with papers, with a window overlooking the main space. Ajax looked up from his position at the computer, surprised.  
  
"Hey, Delphi. Er.could you."  
  
Delphi realised she was still holding the gun. She apologised and put it away. Sitting down, she saw Ajax was doing exactly what she had planned to do.  
  
"What's it like?" she said.  
  
"Amazing. You know it is - remember what you did yesterday."  
  
"I can do a whole lot more than that with this system."  
  
Ajax turned. "Want to take a walk? It's nice outside."  
  
Delphi stared at him for a moment. Is he trying to...no. After a pause, she agreed.  
  
It was nice outside. She hadn't noticed it before, but it was beautiful. The lights of the town glinted off the water. They sat down.  
  
It was Ajax who spoke first. "Sometimes I wonder how they manage to code all this. Look at it. Is it really any better in the real world?"  
  
They had never seen the real world of course. But the pictures weren't pretty.  
  
"It doesn't matter," she said. "It's just a prison." She turned back to him. And a feeling coursed through her - deep remorse, sorrow, anger.  
  
Suddenly, she grabbed him. "I can't live in this place much longer, Ajax. I just can't do it. I've got to get out," she whispered.  
  
"We will, Delphi. I know we will," replied Ajax, surprised at this sudden outburst.  
  
"But what about the people still inside?" she said. "Someone has to help them!"  
  
"We can help them Delphi. Even if we get out, we can still help them."  
  
She started to cry, and embraced him. This place was killing her and they both knew it. She sobbed harder.  
  
They sat quietly in each other's arms for a long time. Eventually, the sun rose over Holy Island.  
  
The sea lapped against the pebbles. The beach was secluded, a fringe of trees hanging over them. Delphi lay back. She needed to think.  
  
The beach was on the other side of a low peninsular. She was separated from the bay and the village here. A few hundred metres out fishing boats trawled the salmon farms. She sighed. She was turning over various plans in her head, how she was going to tell the others she needed out. Would they leave too? Or would they stay on? She'd miss them if they did; she'd visit them, of course, but they would be living in whole different worlds. There was no question that she would leave: already her head ached and she was consumed by a burning desire to pound on the rocks and try to escape.  
  
Then there was Ajax. She wanted to be with him. Would he leave the Matrix for her? So many questions. Still, time enough to answer them all, though her head still seared.  
  
"Hello, Delphi."  
  
Or not.  
  
"Jesus, Morpheus. Don't you ever leave us alone?" she said.  
  
Morpheus just smiled, and sat down on a rock. "A beautiful place indeed. Quite apart from what we usually see."  
  
Delphi sat up. "What do you want, Morpheus? Every time you come here there's trouble."  
  
Morpheus sighed, and removed his sunglasses. "We need your help, as always. Do you want me to be blunt?"  
  
Delphi stretched out on the rocks and shook her head. "I want you top go away. No more missions, Morpheus. I'm getting out."  
  
"Out of the Matrix?"  
  
Delphi nodded.  
  
"I promise, once this is over, I'll get you out. One last mission, Delphi. Is it really too much to ask?"  
  
One last mission. God, that was so typical. Of course she wouldn't do it. She wasn't going to risk her friends or herself on his pea-brained crusade, no matter what the Oracle said. She needed out. She would gather her stuff, contact Niobe and then she would have to ask Ajax.  
  
"Delphi. We need you."  
  
"There must be other people that can do this. Why us?"  
  
"I promise, as soon as it's done we'll jack you out."  
  
It was a more alluring offer. Usually, a jacking out would take months of preparation.  
  
"How long, Morpheus?"  
  
"We can have you out in two days"  
  
Delphi hesitated now. It was too good to be true. But they had done missions like this many times before. They could do this one. Maybe it was worth it.  
  
"Enlighten me," she said.  
  
It was just as the Oracle had said. They had found the One, and they were planning to get him out. What did he need Delphi's help for?  
  
"But he is closely guarded," continued Morpheus. "They have him hooked in to a special grid, heavily guarded. That's why we need you."  
  
The grid through all of the Matrix's major cities, a special high-security measure for those who the machines deemed important. A network of serpentine information lines, policed by the agents.  
  
"And that's where you come in," finished Morpheus.  
  
"And that's where we come in," said Delphi to the others, standing on a table in the old warehouse. "He wants us to disengage the security on this grid, give him time to get the One out and then cover our tracks."  
  
Nobody seemed particularly fazed. They had handled this sort of thing many times before and it sounded just like a routine mission.  
  
"We're hacking into the grid at its nearest outlet. Once we get there we set up our stuff and connect directly to it. We hack in, we bring it down and we get out. It's very simple."  
  
"Where is the nearest outlet?" asked Nexus.  
  
Delphi sighed. This part was the more problematic. "Our destination is number 42 Exeter house, Argyle Street, on the east side of the city."  
  
Now there was some reaction. The city was heavily patrolled. Not a problem for the rebels, but for them it was far more complicated. They couldn't just jack out whenever they wanted. If they were found, they were dead.  
  
Alicia stood up. "Delphi, you know we've never done any ops in cities. You know what will happen if we get caught."  
  
Jay backed her up. "Half of us can't shoot for shit and can't fight either."  
  
"And that's what leads me on to the next part," said Delphi, trying to ignore her headache. "I want everyone training every spare moment. The stakes are too high to for us to fail. And there's something else. This is my last mission. After this, I'm leaving the Matrix."  
  
Ajax looked at the floor. Jay sat down quickly. Alicia gasped and Nexus' face was a picture of shock. Only Amber seemed unaffected; she just sat at the back and looked sad. Delphi knew that they would be distraught, but they had a job to do. She had had a job to do.  
  
"I know that this is a shock to you. But get on your toes and get ready. We start preparing yesterday."  
  
The music filled her ears, violent thrashing guitars and quiet bits followed by loud shouty bits. Still, it was excellent music for her current activity.  
  
She stretched out her hand, and beckoned. Jay adopted a fighting stance.  
  
They both leapt at the same time, flying through the air to strike each other with maximum force. Delphi flipped away and bounced off the ceiling, rolling as she hit the ground and dropkicking Jay to the floor.  
  
"Good," he said, getting up. "You're getting much better. Now, let's try a little more impact."  
  
He stretched out his hand and a long, oriental style bamboo staff whipped to his grasp. Delphi did the same, and twirled it round her body, then dropped it. Embarrassed, she bent to pick it up, and then in an instant she had it in her hands and was on top of Jay. He crashed backwards against the wall and flew up it as she kicked. He dropped from the ceiling and she twisted away as he slammed down where she had been but a moment before. She swept the stick across his face and blocked his answering strike. As she reared up to catch him in the head again he brought his foot round, and she felt a sharp pain in her midriff. She spun away, sliding across the floor until she hit a desk. Jay dropped the stick.  
  
"Was that really necessary?" she said, brushing hair out of her eyes.  
  
He smiled. "Yes. Agents aren't going to compromise. They'll just shoot you."  
  
She got up and sat down on the desk, swinging her legs.  
  
"Hey! Nexus!" shouted Jay. "Want to fight?"  
  
Nexus leapt over a computer he was fiddling with and landed in the centre of the space.  
  
"I'll kick your arse, Jay, you know that?" he said with a grin.  
  
"Let your fists do the talking."  
  
Over the next hour or so, nearly everyone had a go on the warehouse floor, duelling with each other, training with various weapons. The room had changed: now most of the hardware lay packed away ready to ship out, and guns in various stages of deconstruction were laid out on every spare surface. A row of targets, bullet riddled and stuck with throwing knives, were set up along a wall and on the giant map someone had pinned a large red target. They were all set for anything the system could throw at them. Well, almost certainly not anything, Delphi mused, but anything the machines were likely to do. And machines were never unpredictable, just predictable in thousands of diverse ways.  
  
Next morning, they would get the go-ahead and take a small, private boat over to the mainland. Hire a car and get into the city by a back road. Then they'd lodge in a flat opposite the objective and stake it out until night. That was when they would strike, getting into the building through the subway maintenance ducts and climbing up inside the walls to connect to the grid. Then they'd snake the cable back through the ducts to their apartment and fix it to the computers. Hack in, hack out and leave very quickly. There could be no hitch. All in all, she reflected, it was just as well she was getting out. She couldn't stand it much longer.  
  
(Ooh, it's building up. I hope you didn't think the romance and stuff was too cheesy - and if you did, it's too late. Coming (very) soon: action and adventure for our plucky heroes. Sulk out.)  
  
(P.S. If any of you happen to play the PC game 'Counterstrike', you would be advised to take a look at this. ) 


	4. Game On

(Annoyingly, I don't own the Matrix - Warner and the Wachowskis do.  
You know that, I've told you already. And I wouldn't lie to you, now, would I? If I owned the Matrix, I wouldn't be writing this - I'd have retired to some beautiful beach in the sun.  
  
I hope you liked the action last chapter, because believe me, the pace will really ramp up now. I won't detain you further: read it.)  
  
Game On  
  
It was overcast and threatening to descend into a thunderstorm when they drove into the city. A passer by might have mistaken them for a travelling fashion show, with their leather coats and mirrored sunglasses. Sometimes Delphi wandered if it might be better to don less conspicuous attire, but it was tradition. Besides, it was at least practical - good for fighting and looking menacing at the drop of spent clip.  
  
Finally they cruised into Argyle Street, a rundown, poky little place under the shadow of the elevated train tracks. A few tramps hobbled around or sat in puddles of filth in deserted doorways and rubbish littered the street. A dumped hatchback with its windows smashed in completed the dreary picture.  
  
Exeter House was a tall gothic building squatting in the street but its upper levels towered high above the train tracks, reaching into the smoggy air. It didn't quite fit with the rest of the street, looking like some giant bat perched on the pavement. Directly opposite was a similarly tall but tacky hotel. Delphi climbed out of the car and walked towards the building, her feet splashing in the rancid puddles. The others unloaded the equipment and carried it round the back through a covered alleyway, except for Jay, who furtively approached a bum leaning on a railway strut.  
  
She hopped up the steps of the hotel and stepped into the rusted gold revolving door. Pushing it round she emerged into a tiny lobby, all faded plush seats and peeling gilt where a woman not so much sat as sprawled behind a desk, smoking a cigarette and reading a cheap paperback novel. Delphi pulled out a wad of crisp bank notes and tapped on the desk. The woman looked up.  
  
"Yes?" she rasped.  
  
Delphi adjusted her shades. "A room, one night, no questions asked," she said, trying not to betray her youth. The woman nodded and snatched the notes greedily, before handing Delphi a grimy key and turning back to her book. Delphi strode over to the stairwell and went down, opening the back door.  
  
"What kept you?" said Amber, from behind the pile of instrumentation she was holding.  
  
Alicia and Jay trooped in after, followed by Nexus and Ajax carrying a server between them. They continued down to the basement and one by one took the lift up to the top floor, where their room was. Delphi was last and stepped into the elevator. The old lattice doors shut and it ascended at a snail's pace, cheesy music crackling from a speaker in the ceiling. Eventually it hit the top with a broken chime and a jolt, and the door shuddered open. The apartment was room 39, on the street side. She knocked on the door and Alicia opened it, stepping out of the way as Delphi brought in the last of the equipment, and then closing the door with a click.  
  
The apartment was exactly like the rest of Argyle Street: dim and dilapidated. The hideous snot-green wallpaper was peeling from damp, and in the corner there was a bed with no mattress. Had it have bore one it would have almost certainly been yellowing. A desk stood opposite the window overlooking the street, already piled with computers and wires. There was no carpet and only a bare light bulb for illumination. Delphi lifted a slat of the window blind and looked out across the street at Exeter House.  
  
"What about the car?" she said.  
  
"Don't worry," said Jay. "I took care of it."  
  
Down below a tramp was waddling drunkenly along the pavement towards the parked sedan. He didn't care what those kids in the trenchcoats were up to. Besides, he had been paid well to forget. He reached the car and leant unsteadily on the side, peering through the tinted window. He smiled, and pulled out the car key.  
  
It was possibly the soggiest donut she had ever seen, covered in virulent sugar and dripping with fat. It was also not very warm. Not eating it, Delphi felt, might have been an excellent idea. She dropped it on the counter and span round aimlessly on the swivel chair. Ajax was sitting at the computer rig now set up on the desk, and Alicia was watching across the street with a telescope. The others were already moving in on Exeter House.  
  
It was time to start the operation.  
  
She pulled a sleek laptop towards her and donned the microphone headset. Pressing a button she rocked back on her chair and waited.  
  
There was a click. "Delphi?" said Morpheus.  
  
"We're ready to go. You'll get a signal when it's done. You'd better be quick, Morpheus. Once we hack it you'll have around ten minutes."  
  
The phone clicked off, and Delphi took one last look through the window before pressing another key and speaking into the microphone.  
  
"Go," she said.  
  
As soon as the command came, Amber lifted up the manhole cover, and Jay dropped down, followed in an instant by Nexus. Amber climbed down after them and silently replaced the cover. Once in the sewer they strode quickly along the wide pipe, stopping right below the hotel's basement to grab the end of the thick cable from a crack in the roof. They walked on, making little sound, until Delphi told them to stop. The sewer pipe stretched away with no visible exit. There was a faint beep and a section of the roof flickered and disappeared. Beyond was a black, empty space. Amber leapt up weightlessly through the opening into Exeter House.  
  
The computers were firing up for real now, with the sound of a million modems dialling. Ajax turned round.  
  
"Here goes nothing."  
  
Delphi watched as the code scrolled past, tapping a key here and there. She was running a cover-up program, a complex piece of coding and a significant drain on their system. What had to be understood about the Matrix was that is was not a purely physical world. Its inhabitants were like programs traversing the lines of code. And this code was monitored constantly, modified from moment to moment, and patrolled by disembodied agents, floating like ghosts on the currents of information. Like that one-  
  
She snatched up the headset and screamed into the microphone.  
  
"Agent! In the code!"  
  
The group started, all three of them jumping back flat against the wall.  
  
"Do something!" hissed Jay.  
  
"Just stay still," replied Delphi. "And hold your breath."  
  
This was the most difficult thing of all. It was one thing to hide information footprints and program signatures, but hiding a human being amongst the code was near impossible. She typed as fast as she could, while Ajax frantically swapped wires around and connected cables. He flipped a switch and a small grey box hummed to life. She slammed the return key and watched.  
  
"Delphi?" someone whispered.  
  
"Be quiet," she intoned. "Don't move. You're disguised as a registry program for some piping. Act like it."  
  
They stayed silent. Delphi could see the agent glide past. She could see the workings of its algorithms. Eventually it passed by, leaving Delphi to flop into the chair in relief.  
  
"Clear," she said.  
  
Amber twisted her neck round, with great difficulty, to look down on Nexus and Jay. She was wedged inside the walls of the building, her back to one and her feet on the other, slowly edging her way up.  
  
"Okay, the node is right above you," said Delphi.  
  
Amber grunted, mainly because she had the cable gripped in her teeth. She slowly made her way up until she was level with the pulsing pipe that made up just a tiny part of the high security grid. She put one foot on a tiny ledge, testing its weight. It held. She rested the cable in her lap and pulled out a small knife, carefully cutting a neat hole in the grid piping. Underneath, bundles of wires glowed with raw code.  
  
"Alright," said Delphi. "You need to pull out the primary cable. It's the biggest, should be glowing stronger than the others. Try and find it."  
  
Amber touched a likely looking one. It pulsed harder.  
  
"That's it. Now, very slowly, cut it. As soon as that's done, touch it together with your master cable. Very quickly."  
  
Amber started to cut.  
  
Delphi realised she was sweating. If something went wrong at this point, the agents would be on them like a shot. All she could hear was faint breathing over the microphone, and the sound of Ajax typing as fast as he could.  
  
"Almost.done," said Amber through clenched teeth.  
  
Delphi held her breath.  
  
There was a blood curdling metallic screech, and a fizz, and then silence.  
  
"Delphi?"  
  
She sighed with relief at the clearness of her path ahead. It was finished; she would be out of the Matrix within a week. It rushed over her, a wonderful feeling, and a bright future stretching out ahead of her..  
  
"I've attached my cable and bound it with duct tape. What now?"  
  
Delphi got her breath back and answered. "Good job, Amber. I'll take it from here. Come back to the hotel. From here on out it's plain sailing."  
  
Within a minute the cover was in place and the security was down. Within two Morpheus had started the unplugging, a thousand miles away. After another five minutes both him and Delphi were done, and there was no trace. She smiled, and opened her mouth to speak.  
  
She was interrupted by a sinister hissing sound.  
  
(And here comes the mother lode. Review as always, and if I get enough response - I'm playing it for publicity here, people, work with me - the next part will be along shortly. 


	5. Counterinsurgency

I don't own the Matrix.but I will. One day soon.very soon.  
  
(I'm only posting this now because tonight I'm going to Scotland for Christmas, so there will be no updates for a week and a bit.  
  
Reviewers:  
  
Protectress of Dalidon: Thanks a lot because I was beginning to worry that my characterisation was rubbish. As you can see, I've changed the name to Paradise Lost now, for much the same reasons as you say. Yes, it was checked very thoroughly, several times - nothing is so hazardous to suspension of disbelief as a grammatical or spelling mistake. Filling a gap? I'll neatly gloss over that. (  
  
Ellessar-Evenstar: I suppose I did nag you to submit a review but all readers rest assured, I asked for her honest opinion. Lucky, then, that she liked it. Wellard? A better compliment I could not possibly get.  
  
Ghostwritten: What can I say? Well, thank you, for a start. I'm glad you are so wholeheartedly impressed having only read the first chapter - I'm so happy.  
  
Okay, time for the beginning of the end. Or the beginning of the beginning of the end. Okay, chapter 5 then. Here's where the action really kicks off.)  
  
Counter-Insurgency  
  
As she climbed back down into the sewer, Amber heard the hissing too. It was a furtive, malicious sound, a chittering of expectation. She stopped and stared upwards. She could hear a very faint bleeping sound, now. Regular and toneless like a clock. Jay voiced her feelings.  
  
"Suddenly," he said, keeping his voice level and pulling out two pistols, "I have a very bad feeling about this."  
  
"Jay! Amber! Nexus! Get out of there, now!" Delphi screamed into the headset.  
  
The code was racing down the monitor now, search and destroy programs converging on that single point. It looked like the machines had isolated this section of the grid, and Delphi had fallen right into the trap. Now they were as good as dead. She cursed and pounded the computer. Ajax panicked, cutting and rewiring the mess of cables in a frantic rush. Alicia cracked open a case of guns.  
  
It was at that moment that Jay burst in the door, holding it open for the other two and slamming it shut, moving the bare bed to block its swing. Already the trace had started. One by one the computer monitors were shutting down, with a sharp crack and a gloating beep. While the rest armed themselves for combat, Delphi and Ajax were in a world of their own, working together to maintain the shield of code protecting them. She managed to tap into an agent's data stream and took her chance, sticking a virus designed for just this sort of occasion into the crack in the data like a crowbar in a door. One down. But now the other agents were homing in. Delphi kept typing.  
  
"Hurry!" shouted Jay. Already, black sedans and police cars were pulling up outside. All around the room the click and clunk of weapons being loaded could be heard. Delphi's fingers blurred over the keyboard, trying to keep the agents out, trying..  
  
The computer went blank.  
  
"Oh, no." she whispered.  
  
Nexus's face began to distort. It started slowly, twisting out of shape and then getting faster, screaming, his head bulging at odd angles. Suddenly, it stopped, and there was the agent.  
  
Nobody moved. The agent stood in the centre of a ring of loaded guns, but no one dared to fire on their former friend. The agent raised his sidearm. And that was exactly when the sniper bullets drilled through the window, smashing the computers, turning the walls to pulp. One bored right through Alicia's head. Delphi dived behind a table.  
  
The room filled with wood shavings, flying and flurrying. Through the maelstrom she saw Jay shoot the gun from the agent's hand. The agent kicked upwards, smashing Jay on the chin, and he flipped backwards, landing in a perfect fighting stance. Then he grabbed a chair and threw it, grabbing Amber and diving away as the chair smashed on the agent, sending him stumbling backwards. Delphi took her chance and kicked the agent hard, and he fell out the window, crumpling on the street below.  
  
Bullets cracked and snapped around her, piercing the walls. Jay and Amber were firing from the windows, raining death on the police blockade. Ajax joined them. Delphi, from behind her table, heard the unmistakeable blam- whoosh of a rocket launcher.  
  
"RPG!" she screamed. "Get out n-"  
  
A streak of white-hot flame shot through the window and impacted against the far wall. She saw it touch the wall in slow motion, the tip crumpling before the whole thing detonated, filling the room with fire and noise.  
  
She got up, slowly. There was a ringing in her ears. The explosion had blown a gaping hole in the wall, flames licking around its edges. The police were pouring gunfire into the room, and the rebels were struggling to return it. Through the haze of bullets Delphi saw riot squads enter the building down below.  
  
"Run!" snarled Jay. He turned and unloaded both his guns into the wall, then kicked it. What remained of the expensive mahogany panel crashed to the floor. Delphi ran. As she turned a corner in the darkened corridor, a picture smashed as a bullet whizzed over her shoulder. She caught a glimpse of another agent standing in the hallway. She tried a door - it was locked - and ran on, ducking as the lights above exploded with a bang. Another door-she barged into it and this time it gave. She stumbled through, running up the narrow staircase. Another door. This time it was locked and barred. She pulled out a gun and put the clip into it, diving through as the agent swept round the corner, firing. A bullet grazed Delphi's ear, she could feel the heat. She rolled as she landed and looked up.  
  
There, right in front of her, was a chopper.  
  
"Give it up! Drop your weapon!" the speaker blared, straining over the thunderous buzzing, like some gigantic insect. Behind her, the agent levelled his gun, now reloaded. She looked back up at the hovering monstrosity, standing defiant. The wind whipped in her hair. At the same time that the agent fired she jumped towards the chopper. It turned so the mounted machinegun faced her. Time seemed to freeze and she raised her gun, then fired right between the gunner's eyes.  
  
Normal time jolted back in. She slammed into the side of the chopper and scrabbled for a handhold. It tipped sideways, listing in mid-air towards the edge of the building. She looked up, and saw the agent's bullet sail towards the rotor blades. It hit home and with a screech of tortured metal the whole aircraft rolled over. She leapt.  
  
Fire blossomed out from the stricken chopper. It burst apart in a huge explosion that scorched her back as she plunged from the wreckage. Falling down and down she twisted round in the air and saw the el-train track below her. Bright lights flared to her left, and a sound like an exploding foghorn, and as she fell the train was suddenly right under her, shooting past, the air displaced by it's passing buffeting her body. She made a grab for it as she fell, and got a handhold. With a jolt she swung round to the side of the train, held horizontal in the slipstream.  
  
With great effort she pulled her free hand forward, grasping a crack in the doors. She started to pull herself forward, inch by inch. The razor gusts pulled on her clothing. She looked ahead, squinting, and saw a tunnel approaching fast. Panicking, she glanced over her shoulder. Only one way.  
  
The tunnel was only metres away. She let go, hanging there for a moment, the train clattering past in slow motion, and then she flipped sideways into the gap between the two carriages, ripping right through the flimsy connector. She stood with her back against the wall, panting, until the train shot out of the tunnel into the night air again. A glitzy shopping street passed below. She opened the hatch, and stepped through into the interior of the train.  
  
It was empty and deserted, the floor littered with cans and sweet wrappers. She pulled out her cell phone.  
  
"Jay? Where are you?"  
  
The sound of gunshots crackled from the earpiece. "Delphi! You're alive!" said Jay, before his voice was drowned out by an explosion.  
  
"Where are you?" screamed Delphi.  
  
Just crackling and fizzing.  
  
"Jay?" she whispered.  
  
"Fuck! Say again, say again."  
  
She wasted no time. "Where are you?"  
  
"We're under the train tracks, east of St. Enoch's." More shots and swearing. "And you?"  
  
"I'm on the el-train, just went over Charles Street. Where the hell's Ajax?"  
  
"I think they got him." Boom, bang.  
  
Delphi bit her lip. "Are you-"  
  
She got no further, because suddenly her whole body began to vibrate. She dropped the phone. Her vision went green and she felt her face bulge. Her mind was screaming. Let go. Relax. She could feel something inside her, feeling like she was about to explode and implode, at the same time. Pain, so much pain. Let go. She knew what was happening to her. The same thing that had happened to Nexus.  
  
And she felt a burning desire to resist. She could not let go. She would not be taken and she would not let her friends die. It felt like she was being squeezed in a trash compactor and stretched on a rack, all at the same time. She saw her reflection in the window - that of an agent.she smashed her head against a seat. And then, with a jolt of searing pain that sent her to the floor, it was over.  
  
Her breathing was ragged and came hard. Slowly her vision cleared and she was able to stand up, albeit shakily. Come on Delphi. You've got to help them. She gathered herself, pulled out two machine pistols and walked through to the next carriage. There were people here, three of them-a smart woman with a laptop and two scruffy tramps, muttering to each other.  
  
As one, their faces twisted into those of three agents.  
  
Delphi stopped in her tracks, and threw herself backwards, twisting in the air to avoid the bullets, spinning backwards and hit the ground running.  
  
She ran back through the previous carriage and saw the agent's reflections in a glass partition. She ran up the wall, pounding along the sloping metal before diving through the automatic doors. They hissed shut behind her. She raced through another rundown carriage, hearing the hiss of the doors behind her again, ducking through into the first class section as a volley of shots destroyed a plush lamp. She backed down the long corridor past gilded compartments, firing as she went, and whipped round a corner.  
  
She caught her breath. Then she came round again, firing both guns, the spent cartridges bouncing off the walls. She fled, pistols spewing bullets, through into the next carriage. The agents just kept coming, dodging every shot. One gun ran out of ammo, she threw it and by some miracle it hit an agent on the jaw. As he reeled back, she shot him with her other gun. He dropped. She backed through a metal door and slammed it shut.  
  
The agents were advancing far more cautiously now. She looked around for something to bar the door with. She was in the baggage car. Seeing nothing she wedged her empty gun in the door handle, hoping it would hold for long enough. She picked her way through the racks of suitcases, trying to ignore the pounding on the door.  
  
They had to get out of the Matrix. Now the cat was well and truly out of the bag, there was no way they could go back to their quiet headquarters. She dialled the number.  
  
"Operator."  
  
"Get me Morpheus."  
  
There was a click.  
  
"Morpheus," she said, before he had a chance to answer. "Listen, you've got to get us out of here, we need a hard line. They've got us, we've got to get unplugged!"  
  
Morpheus, his voice calm, replied. "Try to stay alive, I'll get a ship on it. But how will we find you? You haven't taken any pills."  
  
"I'll think of something. How long till the ship gets ready?"  
  
"Thirty minutes."  
  
"Thirty minutes?" Delphi almost screamed.  
  
"Survive." Morpheus cut off.  
  
Delphi swore. How were they going to get out? Her thoughts were rudely interrupted when the gun went spinning past her right shoulder. The gun she had used to bar the door..  
  
She spun and pulled out a compact pistol. Hoping it was beefy enough, she fired the whole clip through the thin metal sheet. There was a thump. A moment later the door fell into the room, crashing to the floor, and the last agent was outlined against the light in the doorway. Without thinking, she threw the empty gun at him and jumped out the nearest window.  
  
As she fell away, she saw the agent appear at the window for a fleeting second before the train sped away between the buildings. For anyone else this would have been the end of the line, but she landed, cat-like, in the dark alley beneath the train tracks.  
  
(You like? I certainly hope so, because there's plenty more where that came from. Yet again, I'm asking you to review my work (it's a real confidence booster - I live on reviews) and the next chapter will be along as soon as I manage to escape my family in Scotland. Anybody who lives on the Isle of Arran, watch out for the scruffy-haired teenager with a notepad.) 


	6. Open War

I don't own the Matrix, that's Warner studios. If I owned the matrix, I wouldn't be writing this. Any and all similarities to persons living or dead are an accident. Sorry.  
  
(Hello again. I'm glad you all like it, only now I have anxieties about whether you'll be disappointed with the rest of the story. Anyway, Let's get on with the reviews response - however few there might be. Still, can't complain. I love you all!  
  
Protectress of Dalidon: I'm glad I changed the title too. It's less pretentious and makes me look slightly more scholarly. Heh. As for unanswered questions, do not fear. All, some or none of them will be answered during the course of the next few chapters. Thanks for the praise, and the present. It does me a power of good, and makes me want to get on with all my other projects. Thanks!  
  
Fic-Chic22: Hey! Your fics ARE good! I'm so happy you like it.  
  
These reviews are the best Christmas present I could possibly get from you lot. Ahh, bless. Yes, the chapter name is a very good indicator of what goes on in this chapter. Boom, bang, crash, and so forth.  
  
PS. This chapter incorporates multiple perspectives, and due to this site's irritatingly stubborn formatting which ignores any empty new lines after the first one, I'm going to use a single asterisk to separate these multiple threads.  
  
* Like so.  
  
If this could have a soundtrack, it would be a swelling John Williams rendition of Coldplay's 'The Scientist' complete with accompanying angelic choruses. This work does not have a soundtrack. Please feel free to hum you own.)  
  
Open War  
  
Ajax woke up, his head pounding. He was on a rooftop somewhere, lying next to a ventilation shaft of some sort. He looked around. To his left, the building on the other side of the street was on fire, a huge dent in the wall. He hauled himself to his feet and looked over the edge. Down in the street the wreckage of a helicopter lay broken in flames, surrounded by emergency workers.  
  
He couldn't remember how he had got there. He had been running after Delphi, trying to catch up, and then unbearable pain.and then this. In between was just a blank. He looked back to where he had lain. On the concrete there was a smoking desert eagle.  
  
He recalled how Nexus turned into an agent. And then how he had looked out the window once the agent had fell-and the body had been that of Nexus. They seemed to possess people, leaving the host body when it was of no more use. Could he himself have.no, it was impossible. He picked up the gun. Well, if he had.he didn't see any bodies. He'd have to assume Delphi was alive. As for the others, he couldn't guess. He pulled out his phone and dialled.  
  
*  
  
Jay and Amber were in trouble. Already they had been forced to retreat through the back streets and now they were making a stand in Queen's Street station. Military police were flooding in, taking shelter behind the ticket office and the discarded trolleys as explosions blossomed all around. The station was modern-all white marble and mirrored glass, which at the moment was being terminally redecorated. Outside the aftermath of the last firefight was scattered around the street. Jay cartwheeled out from behind a cheap sandwich stall, firing through a sheet of plate glass with the assault rifle he had picked up from a dead cop. He spiralled through the air, landing behind one of the pillars. Over by the entrance, he heard bullets tearing through flesh. He nodded to Amber, who flipped up onto the ceiling and ran along it firing. As the cops raised their weapons and peppered the glass roof with gunfire, Jay kicked off the pillar and flew through the air, spraying rounds. More cops poured in. He spun and kicked off the opposite pillar, bouncing from column to column, split- kicking his way through the storm of bullets up to the roof before he joined Amber on top of the departures/arrivals board.  
  
The firing stopped as the cops fanned out. Jay lay flat on the thin ledge.  
  
"What now?" he said.  
  
Amber's eyes glinted. "I'm going down. You'll know what to do."  
  
And with that, she flipped gracefully down to the floor, her body arcing through the air, and landed on one of the cops. He was knocked out instantly. The other cops turned inwards towards her and fired as one, while more and more entered the building. Amber spun upwards, dodging the bullets, and half the squad was cut down by their own fire. Amber landed, breaking into a fighting stance. The cops unhooked their truncheons.  
  
One of them turned round, hearing a heavy thump behind him. Jay shot him. Amber pulled out two pistols and started fighting, spinning round, kicking one officer to the floor, shooting another point-blank in the face. Jay kicked one, throwing him through the air, knocking over more cops. He head-butted another and grabbed the man's gun from its holster, shooting him in the chest.  
  
There was the noise of a police siren, coming nearer. The fighting stopped as Jay spun only to see a stricken police van, back end mangled and belching fire, careen up the station steps. It leapt in the air, the stairs acting as a ramp, and smashed through the ticket office as it rolled over, landing on its roof. For a moment, everything was quiet. Then the fuel tanks decided to give in, and it blew up.  
  
Jay was knocked to the ground as the blast wave swept through the station, overturning stalls, killing cops, shattering glass.  
  
He rolled over. His trouser leg was on fire. Stamping and rolling to put it out, he got up, shakily. Quickly he spotted Amber, lying under an upturned stall. He raced over to her, picked up the stall and flung it behind his shoulder. Amber opened one eye.  
  
Jay sighed. "You're alive." he picked her up.  
  
"Damn right," said Amber. They kissed quickly before hurrying off.  
  
The sound of heavy footsteps behind them made them turn. Out of the flaming wreckage, blurred by a heat haze, five agents strode towards them. Jay looked back at Amber. They closed their eyes and braced themselves.  
  
Someone tapped Jay's shoulder. He looked round.  
  
"Need a little help?" said Seraph.  
  
*  
  
Delphi's cell phone rang. She snatched it from her coat as she ran through the alleys.  
  
"Delphi, it's me," said Ajax's voice.  
  
She almost cried with relief. "Are you alright?" she said. "I thought you were dead..."  
  
He laughed grimly. "No. Just.vacant."  
  
"What do you mean?" she said.  
  
"I think I was.possessed. By the."  
  
Delphi gasped. "The agent on the roof? That was you?"  
  
"I think so. Delphi, it's open war in the streets. The riot police are out in full force with a matching riot to boot. I can't contact Jay, he's dropped his cell phone-or maybe he's dead. I'm on George Street right now, it's a mess. The shopping centre is blown wide open and the train track has collapsed. We've got to get out of here."  
  
Delphi turned a corner and found herself on a main street. Darting back into the shadows, she whispered into the phone.  
  
"I know. I've called Morpheus-we're getting an exit in-" she looked at her watch, "-twenty minutes."  
  
"Twenty minutes?" Ajax was incredulous. "Will we last that long?"  
  
Delphi bit her lip. "We can try."  
  
*  
  
Seraph blurred around the chamber, mirroring the sweeping bullet- dodge dances of the agents but with a pistol in each hand. He flowed from one position to another, firing constantly, never seeming to reload. To human eyes it was too fast to see, the combatants weaving around each other in a spit second. One agent, two, three went down to his guns. Jay and Amber decided to take advantage of the situation, and left.  
  
They ran out into a back street, throwing open the door and skidding to a halt. At one end of the alley a police van was parked, back first. At the other end a building had collapsed, blocking the path with rubble. The back doors of the van burst open revealing a full squad of riot police. They advanced behind their shields.  
  
In a flash Amber was on top of them, kicking one over before he could react. Another man fell to the floor, throwing his shield up above his face, and Amber landed on top of it, standing on top of the shield with the cop underneath. She fired downwards with both guns, bullets ricocheting off until one punched through the thin metal and struck the man in the head. Planting her foot under the shield she jumped upwards, flipping it out from under her and catching another man on the chin. The wall offered little purchase and she came down hard on the roof of the van. Below, Jay knocked over the front man and fired through the hole in his shield killing the three other cops. He caught the man's shotgun by the barrel, pumped it and caught it again, this time by the butt. It was smoking.  
  
Amber dropped down.  
  
"Are you all right?"  
  
Jay adjusted his shades and nodded, stepping out of the circle of bodies.  
  
Suddenly, the world turned white and filled with sound and heat. He was bowled over and Amber was swept to the ground. When the smoke cleared there was a giant hole in the station wall, billowing flame. As they watched, Seraph came striding out of the maelstrom. The fire lapped at his heels, making him look for all the world like some messiah of ultraviolence. He helped them up.  
  
Jay spoke first. "What the fuck are you doing here, man?" he said.  
  
"Are you not happy to see me?"  
  
"I didn't say that."  
  
Seraph took off his glasses. His eyes were a deep blue, ringed with black, and reflected everything. "I have my reasons."  
  
Jay left it at that. He pointed to the van. "Let's take it. I've lost my phone, where did Delphi last say she was?"  
  
"On the train," said Amber. "It doesn't help - she could be anywhere."  
  
Jay shook his head. "No matter. If I know Delphi, she'll find us."  
  
*  
  
The entire street was ablaze. Delphi darted out behind a pile of rubble, and risked a glance at the shopping centre. It looked like a plane or something had gone right through it, punching a hole at both ends and decimating the mall in between. Inside, there was fighting, and the factions were becoming very hard to distinguish.  
  
She heard a step behind her and spun round. It was Ajax.  
  
"Delphi! You all right?" he said.  
  
Delphi sagged. "I'm fine, you scared me."  
  
"Sorry. Look, we've got to find the other two. Last I heard they were at Central Station. That's on the other side of the mall, and at any rate we'll probably need a car to get to them."  
  
Delphi looked across at the mall again. "Are you sure there's no other way round?"  
  
Ajax shook his head. "Believe me, I've tried."  
  
"I've got no weapons."  
  
Ajax searched his pockets and found two sleek-looking pistols. He handed them to her, followed by two extra clips of ammo. "That should do for now," he said. Then he reached up to his neck.  
  
"I want you to have this," he said, taking off his necklace. It was made of burnished gold, and a small medallion hung from it. "I never really had a use for it but it's proved to be lucky. It's yours."  
  
Delphi opened her mouth, and Ajax put a finger to his lips. She pocketed it.  
  
"Ajax-" began Delphi.  
  
Suddenly, in the broken streetlight, Ajax looked so much older than he was.  
  
She continued. "-Ajax, when I jack out-"  
  
"We're all coming out, Delphi." he said.  
  
"I don't want you to get hurt. I-"  
  
He put a finger to his lips. "Don't say it, Delphi."  
  
And then, he smiled. It only lasted a fleeting second, but it was there. "Come on."  
  
*  
  
The liberated police van swerved through the streets, careening right through a roadblock onto the university campus. Inside, Jay was frantically jerking the steering wheel, trying to keep the battered vehicle under control. The back doors had long since been scraped off, and as he saw a police car come forward in the rear view window, Amber, standing in the open back of the van, opened fire. Bullets shredded the squad car's bonnet, tearing through glass and flesh. It broke of, listed to one side and crashed into a concrete barrier, exploding in a brilliant ball of red flame. Seraph steadied himself against the roof.  
  
"Where are we going?" he said.  
  
Jay smiled manically. "Anywhere not here."  
  
The van rumbled through a tunnel onto the campus ring road. They turned left, the police screaming after them. Bushes scraped along the sides of the vehicle as they passed the science building. They skidded into a parking lot, full of cars.  
  
"Shit," said Amber.  
  
Jay drove the van along an isle between parked cars, taking a huge handbrake turn around a corner. The back end slid out as they spun, and hit a tiny hatchback, flipping it over. Up ahead, there was a wall of cars. No way out. Jay gritted his teeth and as one, Amber and Seraph looked very slowly at each other and threw themselves to the floor.  
  
The van hit the sloping back of a Buick like a ramp. It bucked vertically into the air, the front end thrown high, and did a slow, ungainly half barrel roll. It finally thumped down on its side in a shrubbery.  
  
When it finally stopped moving, Amber raised her head, very cautiously, from the steaming wreckage.  
  
Half the plants were on fire and a long, deep gouge traced their slide from the car park. In the van's path, trees had been knocked flat. Jay had been thrown through the windscreen, and was crumpled against a wall. Seraph was in a tree.  
  
She rushed over to Jay, gasping.  
  
Jay moaned and rolled over.  
  
"Jesus, Jay, you're hurt bad."  
  
Jay spat out the branch that was preventing his speech. "Am I?"  
  
"Hold still."  
  
She ripped the arm of her coat and wrapped it around his beleaguered torso. It was bleeding heavily. Seraph leaned over.  
  
"He'll be alright," he said. "You aren't hurt. It's not real. Remember."  
  
Jay smiled, and that was when the police cars pulled up just metres away.  
  
One drove right towards Seraph and he leapt on the bonnet, the car speeding away taking him with it. Amber grabbed Jay under his arms and dragged him back through a bush. She realised that there was a courtyard on the other side of the shrubbery, and she dragged Jay across the empty concrete. There was a payphone against the opposite wall, and she leaned him carefully against the whitewashed stone before searching in her pockets for some change.  
"Jay." she said, "any change?"  
  
He looked up, disbelief on his face. Eventually, he handed her twenty pence.  
  
*  
  
They were inside the mall, a long modern building. It consisted of simply a giant corridor lined with shops on both storeys, walkways stretched along both sides. Across the shattered shop floor, the police were fighting a running battle against the rioters, using upended displays and fallen hangings for cover. Delphi was running along one of the upper walkways when five riot cops dropped down on ropes through the skylight. She pulled out her pistols and unleashed a volley of shots, twisting to the side. She crested the railings and leapt over the space, the men below too preoccupied with the huge orgy of combat too even notice her. Nevertheless, the remaining men on the walkway behind her fired, bullets streaming past her body. She landed on the other side with balletic grace, ducking behind a life-size cardboard cutout. Bullets punched through it like it wasn't there and she quickly cartwheeled forwards into a music shop. The firing stopped and she crouched under a shelf of records. Her phone rang.  
  
"Delphi! Where are you?"  
  
"Amber?" she replied. "The mall, George Street. What happened? Are you okay?"  
  
"Not good. Listen, we can't just run off with our tail between our legs this time. We need an evacuation."  
  
Across the mall, Ajax appeared, firing point blank into the cops on the balcony. He ran into the shop and tipped the shelf Delphi was sheltering under over, leaving her lying behind the improvised shield.  
  
"Five minutes, Amber. I promise. A ship's coming."  
  
"Jay won't last that long."  
  
Delphi's eyes widened. "He's hurt?"  
  
There was a gunshot and the phone went dead.  
  
She swore and fell back against the shelf. Ajax fired over the barrier and threw himself down next to her.  
  
"The elevator down to the garage is two shops down. We can make it easily."  
  
Delphi nodded and they vaulted the shelf to run out into the storm of fire. The walkway outside had collapsed and while Ajax leapt over it Delphi flipped away onto the other side, running along the wall to bounce back to him. They dived into the elevator and Delphi hit the button to go down. The doors began to close, agonisingly slowly, and then she heard the whoosh of a rocket, and a thunderous thud.  
  
The far wall blew in with a sound beyond sound and something huge and flaming crashed through. It landed, falling through the floor into the garage below. The doors shut and the lift descended.  
  
"That," said Ajax. "Was not good."  
  
An impressive understatement, thought Delphi. The elevator jolted and the doors opened on a scene of devastation.  
  
In the middle of the garage was the burning wreck of what was, now it was in plain view, a train carriage. It lay under the gaping hole above. Of course, Delphi thought. The El-train ran right alongside the mall. Someone had seen fit to blow the tracks.  
  
They wasted no time in darting to an open sports car, but were stopped in their tracks when the ringing started. Delphi automatically reached for her phone, but it was coming from a maintenance room to their left. She opened the door, Ajax close behind, and saw the phone sitting on a nicotine-stained table between shelves of equipment and yellow files. There was the sound of a modem dialling, and then the phone rang again.  
  
Delphi reached to pick it up but suddenly the world went silent and a shapeless figure appeared, before flickering into one she knew. Niobe, captain of the Logos, appeared and one by one the rebels phased in.  
  
(I think that's it for now. The next chapter will be along in a week or so. Remember, read and review for a better tomorrow - and stay tuned.) 


	7. Full Circle

Annoyingly, I still don't own the Matrix, despite my clandestine operations. Even after my latest infiltration (involving stealing a guard's uniform and fighting my way out when it all went pear-shaped) the property is still secure deep inside the Wachowskis' secret lair. I'll get them yet!  
  
(Reviews:  
  
Richard the Pedantic: Well, er, thank you. It's nice to know I'm getting such a good reception from my (admittedly few) readers. I always tried to get some sort of epic quality in there: looks like I succeeded.  
  
Protectress of Dalidon: Yes, I like 'sploding too. As for the storyline, I will remain tight-lipped. Hey, you're about to read the penultimate chapter. The name 'Ajax' did come from the pages of the Iliad. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I dipped my nose in mythology, so I don't know about the greater/lesser thing. You tell me!  
  
On a completely different note, this story has impressed someone so much that I got a job on his Half-Life 2 mod, writing fiction. Yay me! Again, the name is a pretty good indication of this chapter's events. The story is drawing to a close, and this is the penultimate chapter. The end is coming: book now.)  
  
Full Circle  
  
Amber sagged down amongst the burning debris, dropping her guns. Around her, the cops lay dead or dying, some pinned beneath chunks of tortured metal, others full of holes in pools of blood. Jay was fading fast, lying on the ground beside her.  
  
"There's nothing you can do, Amber," Jay murmured. "I can't.really believe."  
  
She leant over him, in tears. "Jay, it's not real. You're not going to die."  
  
"Is this any less real?" He smiled morbidly. "What makes it less real than the world beyond?"  
  
"But-"  
  
He cut her off. "I suppose it's.subjective. Depends on.how you.look at it..." He smiled again. "Don't cry."  
  
He closed his eyes. Then Amber heard the most unpleasant sound she had ever heard. The click of a loading gun. She looked up to see an agent, towering over her. His gun was raised.  
  
In a fit of rage she snatched the machine pistol out of Jay's coat and knocked the agent's hand away, levelling the pistol at his head and pulling the trigger. He dodged, picked Amber up and threw her against a wall. She collapsed, bleeding. The agent covered the distance towards her in long, easy strides but just as he lunged Amber backflipped, kicking him on the jaw on her upspin. She planted her feet on the wall and leapt over his head, firing off the last of her pistol ammo. But as she landed the agent kicked her feet from under her. Once again she was down on the floor, at gunpoint.  
  
The agent's face seemed full of glee, but it was fleeting. The gun clicked and there was a deafening bang. Amber's world went grey, and time seemed to slow down. Strangely, she felt no pain, and looked upwards at the grinning agent. A shell casing clattered on the ground.  
  
Then, very slowly, the agent's rictus transformed into a look of horror he gazed down at the hole in his chest. And then, he toppled over forwards, dropping the gun. Behind him, Jay was clutching his own weapon tightly with smoke coiling out. He smiled.  
  
"One.last.round," he said. Then his head went limp and thudded to the concrete.  
  
There was the sound of a phone ringing and then footsteps, but Amber was too far gone to care. She finally gave in, and collapsed.  
  
"Shit," said Ghost.  
  
Then Amber heard Jay's voice. "Took your fucking time," he said, and died.  
  
*  
  
The rebels were fighting through the streets with flowing grace. Delphi fought alongside them, flitting among the alleys to the exit point. Niobe  
had briefed her very carefully on this. They were headed for a payphone under the El-train on the other side of town. They would connect her and Ajax to the apparatus and jack them out as quickly as possible. Ghost had  
been sent to bring  
  
Jay and Amber to the rendezvous point. If all they had to fight were the  
cops..  
  
But they had forgotten the agents. As the group charged a roadblock four of the police twisted into suit-clad shapes. As one, the agents fired, killing two rebels outright and sending the rest diving for cover.  
  
"Go!" shouted Niobe. "The exit is under the track just ahead! We'll hold them off!" "But-" Delphi protested.  
  
"Go!"  
  
Niobe threw a smoke grenade and Ajax took his chance, racing into the fog. Delphi followed. She couldn't see anything but when she emerged smoke cover there were two agents, facing them down.  
  
Ajax started firing at the agents, pinning them down while he skirted around them. Delphi ran past and fired as well, giving Ajax a chance to stop and run. Suddenly, instead of staying still to dodge the bullets, the agents started to snake forward towards Delphi. She ran backwards, firing. Ajax threw a grenade, which the first agent deflected with the palm of his hand, and it whirled off to explode an unfortunate tramp. Ajax and Delphi raced up a fire escape and through a second story door into an abandoned room, a window at the far end facing an adjacent building. Ajax stood by it and let Delphi across the gap before dropping a grenade behind him and following. They crashed through the wide window on the other side, landing in an open-plan office. They split up, Delphi crawling under a desk to emerge in a work cubicle.  
  
Now the agents were hunting, prowling between the isles of computers and desks. Delphi crouched down low under behind a photocopier and saw one of them walk right past. She crept round it so she was behind the agent and aimed a pistol at the back of his head. As she was about to squeeze the trigger the agent spun, dodged and kicked her square in the chest. She landed on her side against a cubicle wall, knocking it over. Quickly she rolled sideways and darted towards an enclosed office.  
  
Inside, the walls were painted a tasteless blood red, large abstract paintings hanging in glass on the walls. Obviously whoever inhabited this room was rich enough to spare no expense, and powerful enough to look stupid while doing it. There was a giant desk, a well-stocked bookshelf and no way out.  
  
With a crash Ajax flew through the door, splintering it. Beyond, the agent fired, but his target had slid under the desk and the bullets hit wood. Delphi grabbed her friend and took the only course available - out the window. She twisted as she fell, next to her Ajax raised his hand and they fired in unison as they fell. She hit the ground running and ducked through a tunnel. She knew she was close to the rendezvous point and she heard gunshots coming closer. Finally, she emerged into a small cul-de-sac under the train track. There was complicated equipment everywhere and rebels tinkering and guarding. It looked like she was closer than she thought.  
  
Amber's voice shouted "Delphi!" and a second later she rushed over. "Are you okay?"  
  
"I'm fine, but there's an agent coming!"  
  
The rebels looked up, fear on their faces, and immediately went to work, connecting wires and loading their guns. There was a loud bang, and shots from far off.  
  
A stocky rebel in a white suit approached her. "Let's go, miss. We don't have much time. Just take this pill and wait. I'd advise you sit down. It's all set up, all we have to do is pull this switch - then the process is automatic."  
  
Delphi swallowed the pill, but shook her head. Ajax was nowhere to be seen. "I'm not leaving without my friend."  
  
The rebel gave her a dark look, then shrugged and went back to the computer.  
  
"Where's Jay?" Delphi said.  
  
Amber closed her eyes.  
  
"I'm sorry," Delphi said, guessing the truth. "How did you get out?"  
  
Amber looked down. "Ghost arrived via payphone, just before Seraph pulled up in a police car. We made our way back here."  
  
When she looked up, there was something about her face-  
  
It twisted, bugling in all the wrong places, and turned into the sharp face of an agent.  
  
Delphi screamed and jumped backwards, but it was too late. The agent fired a round point-blank into her chest and she collapsed. Lying on the floor, the pain was immense as her vision clouded. She felt a foot on her stomach and stared right down the barrel of a gun.  
  
Then the agent's smile faltered. He saw what Delphi was now holding in her hand. The agent just had time to dive away, but by then it was too late. She rolled the grenade along the ground towards the agent, and it detonated.  
  
A blast that assaulted her senses in the same way that a steam train assaults a car across the tracks, and then.  
  
Everything was silent when Delphi opened her eyes. She couldn't see. Everything was white. She shouted, but couldn't be heard above the ringing in her ears. Slowly the sound crept back into the world, and she got up. She was dying, she knew, but maybe if she could get out, she might survive. She staggered towards the computers, making for the switch that would end the nightmare.  
  
And then she heard the heavy footsteps. And knew it was the very same agent. This time, they hadn't taken her, and everyone else was dead. The only host available was-  
  
"Ajax," she said.  
  
The agent sneered. "How perceptive of you, Miss Ellen."  
  
She groped on the floor for a gun, and found a bulky pistol. It was heavy, and she raised it in the direction of the speaker.  
  
"Oh, please," said the agent. "You think you can shoot me-" and then faltered. Delphi's sight was slowly returning, and she sensed something was wrong. She fired.  
  
Instead of the weird morphing sound of a bullet-dodge, she heard a splat.  
  
"Interesting." said the agent. "But you know I'll be back, if you kill me."  
  
As her eyes cleared, she saw that she had hit him in the arm. "How.?"  
  
The agent looked slightly annoyed. "This host body is.fighting back." Then he smiled. "But it is weak."  
  
"Why didn't you just take me over?" said Delphi.  
  
The agent looked angry for a second. "That is what interests me, Miss Ellen. How did you manage to resist us? Whatever you did, your head is a closed door to us now."  
  
The agent took a step and Delphi shouted, "Don't come any closer!"  
  
He raised his gun and smirked. "I believe it is not you that has the initiative here. Don't touch the switch."  
  
The phone started to ring.  
  
Her knuckles were white from gripping the gun, and her other hand clutched the wound in her chest. She could hear a ringing in her head from the last shot-or was it the ringing of the phone? A train clattered overhead, throwing moving shadows over the scene. Tears were streaming down her face. The agent smiled.  
  
"What will you do, Miss Ellen? You cannot fight. You cannot possibly win. If you shoot me you'll be dead before you can get off a second shot. Imagine, for a moment, that you actually managed to escape this place. The resistance will never prevail. Humans, to quote a colleague, are a virus. They must be destroyed. It is inevitable - why fight it?  
  
Delphi stepped backwards. "Anything is better than this."  
  
"Anything?" the agent raised an eyebrow. "What of your friends? Your family?"  
  
She choked back the tears. "I have no family. You bastards killed my friends."  
  
The agent smiled a grim smile. "No, Miss Ellen. You killed them."  
  
She started to sob uncontrollably. "Bastard," she whispered.  
  
Then the agent's face flickered. Only for a moment, but it was there. Delphi blinked and the agent flickered again. Now his hand started to jerk, and he looked down in puzzlement. His face bulged outwards, and the gun arm started to rise of its own accord.  
  
And then, for a fleeting second, Ajax's face was screaming out at her.  
  
"Go, Delphi!"  
  
The agent's arm continued its ascent, shaking and bringing the gun up to point at the side of his head. He tried to subdue it, but then Ajax broke through again.  
  
"Now! Go now!"  
  
"No!" Delphi screamed.  
  
The agent shuddered, and the gun pressed against his head. "Do it! For.me."  
  
And then he fired.  
  
The gun bucked out of his hand, spraying blood and brains out from the exit wound. Like a demolished building the body sagged and fell to its knees. As it keeled over the agent left its host, leaving Ajax's corpse lying on the ground.  
  
She looked at the ringing phone and the equipment, and pulled the switch, then fell down next to him, crying.  
  
There was a dialling tone; she looked up, teary-eyed, and screamed as the she fell out of the world.  
  
(Oh, I won't keep you waiting. The next chapter has already been released and follows on directly from this one. Review for victory.) 


	8. Liberation

I don't own the Matrix, that's Warner studios. If I owned the matrix, I wouldn't be writing this. Any and all similarities to persons living or dead are an accident. Sorry.  
  
Here comes the end, people. The final chapter.  
  
Liberation  
  
"How is she?"  
  
"She's real banged up. In her mind she was wounded and internally bleeding. There's a lot of muscle and tissue damage. I doubt she'll ever walk again."  
  
"Did anyone else get out?"  
  
"Ghost went off to help Soren's guys. Most of them escaped. I think everyone else is dead."  
  
"Hmm. Well, she's been through a lot. Wake her up gently."  
  
Delphi opened her eyes. Colours and shapes swam in front of her, the voices of the unknown people distorting. Her vision was blurred and she could just make out that her surroundings were grey.  
  
"She's awake."  
  
A pink blur leaned over her, and then another brown one.  
  
"Rest, now, child. Your eyes are weak. Don't struggle."  
  
"Where am I?" she managed. Her tongue felt alien to her.  
  
"Onboard the Logos," said the brown blob.  
  
Delphi screwed up her face. "Wha-"  
  
And then it all came rushing back.  
  
Agents. Ajax. Gunshots. All dead. Ajax. All dead.  
  
"No!"  
  
She sat up with a start, feeling sharp pinpricks in every extremity of her body. Immediately she was wrestled down and subdued, but she lay there, shaking.  
  
"It's all right, Delphi. It's over."  
  
"They're all dead!" she screamed.  
  
"Shhh. It's all right. Come on, now. It's all over."  
  
Her vision went clear for a moment.  
  
"You're in the real world now, Delphi," said Ghost.  
  
The bullet had gone right through her chest, just missing her heart, and severed her spinal column. With advanced surgery she started to recover but it was a long time, almost five months, before she was finally able to move her lower body again. She found it hard to walk at first, and had to learn it all over again. Eventually she was in a state approaching normality, though still haunted by the events of her liberation.  
  
The real world had a profound effect on her. The colours seemed so much richer, the sounds deeper and textures more diverse. She felt, for the first time in her life, that everything was crystal clear. Everything had more substance. And she felt free - wonderfully free. Her mind no longer seemed to be imprisoned within her head. She still hadn't got used to it, and while it lasted, it was euphoric.  
  
It was while they were docked in Zion and she was lying in her room on the ship, doing exercises, when she was visited.  
  
There was a knock on the door, and Niobe appeared, with a grave look.  
  
"There's someone here to see you, Delphi," she said, and retreated.  
  
The door swung open to reveal a tall, dark and ever so slightly effete looking man. He sat down on the bed.  
  
"You don't know me," he said, with the voice of a 40-a-day smoker, tinged with guilt. "My name is Neo."  
  
Delphi sat up. "Ah."  
  
Neo looked at the floor, and put his head in his hands. "Listen, I heard about.what you did."  
  
Delphi stayed silent.  
  
"And.I'm sorry. I know that you and your friends were trying to.to get me out." He looked up. "I'm so sorry. If I had known."  
  
Delphi closed her eyes. "It's alright," she said softly.  
  
Neo continued. "I wish.there was something that I could do about your friends. I don't know if you'll ever forgive me, but."  
  
She cut him off. "It wasn't your fault."  
  
"But they were trying to get me out. It's all down to me."  
  
"Listen," she said, a tear dropping from her cheek. "You couldn't have known. I'm sure you have something else to be getting on with. Goodbye," Neo opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it. He rose and nodded his head. Then he closed the door quietly behind him.  
  
*  
  
That night, Delphi went out of the ship for the first time in days, and walked along the deserted walkways. The city of Zion slept, the occasional light blinking on and off. Below her the dock was crisscrossed with roads and buildings. She wandered through the twilight, faintly aware of the mechanical hum of assorted machines. The dock doors stood silent and imposing, immovable, a barrier against the outside world. Ships hovered like lingering spectres in mid-air, chained to the docksides. She came to a T-junction on the walkway, and instead of turning left or right, she continued to the railing and stepped up onto it. She leaned over, and opened her hands, letting the object she was holding drop.  
  
Ajax's necklace fell about two hundred feet before smashing on the roof below.  
  
"Are you okay?" said Ghost, appearing behind her.  
  
She turned round.  
  
"Yes," she said, a faint smile creeping across her face. "I think so."  
  
The End  
  
(That's it, people. The end. Personally I think it works great and is satisfying and fitting one. Think not? You know what to do. And if you all  
liked this enough.well, I might think about a follow up.Sulk out.)  
  
PS. For the record, the 'exploding tramp' line made me laugh too. ;-) 


End file.
